More and more folks are realizing that housing contributes to their health. Federated Farmers steps up to looking after their members and their children’s health. Talk about blunt quotes ‘asthma-inducing hell hole’ is plain-speaking. “No one wants to live in a black mould pit or an asthma-inducing hell hole.” “Her response was ‘Our members’ employees live on farms in accommodation’” …
We’d like to congratulate Certified Passive House Fesigner Guy Shaw on his elegant design of this passive house. This elegant design easily met the certification criteria. We are particularly fond of the way the thermal envelope of the building is very simple but the external facade of the architectural looks very convoluted. This is an excellent way to combine the …
Beautiful English Passive House social housing apartments for the elderly: “18 apartments split into three blocks totalling 1057 sqm treated floor area. The larger block is comprised of 14 one-bedroom apartments at 55 sqm each, while the two identical smaller buildings each contain two two-bed apartments at 68 sqm each.” Unlike most project descriptions, this article has a refreshingly frank …
Surprise! Australian buildings have very similar problems to New Zealand buildings. They’re finding that mould is prevalent throughout their buildings because they don’t require designing to prevent mould in their building code. Because they don’t design cold spots out of the buildings or sufficient ventilation they have condendation and then mould in their buildings. And as we all know this …
Dangerous overheating in buildings may not be showing up in desktop studies, new research suggests.” “Monitored operative temperatures of up to 47.5C recorded in a highly glazed apartment building in London were not reflected in software modelling of the same building, with temperature peaks in simulated scenarios between 18C and 30C cooler, depending on which weather files were used.” …
This report reviewed detailed test measurements for air tightness and heating loads for passive houses and non-passive houses designed to meet an energy target. From this data the Passive Houses (Passivhaus in the UK) predicted performance matched quite closely to the measurements compared to other non-passive house designed buildings. “Most of the homes were fitted with mechanical ventilation with heat …
“I like to build for people, not for profit”. Quote from Isaac Davidson “If we’ve got a subdivision of 1600 new homes to build, you have to ask is it cheaper to build them to low specifications or build a new power plant, because that is where we are going. You spend 20% more to build each house to an …
Our congratulations to Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman as well. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and hear her important research on the direct relation between really bad housing and bad health in children in New Zealand. The huge health care costs of choosing to build poor quality housing is shocking. And that is just the money never mind all the misery and …
Newly released standard AS/NZS 5141:2018 Residential heating and cooling systems – Minimum applications and requirements for energy efficiency, performance and comfort criteria Specifies requirements for the design, selection, installation, commissioning and maintenance of residential heating and cooling systems to maximize operating energy efficiency within residential buildings. It also sets requirements to achieve prescribed performance and comfort criteria. This standard includes …
